In recent years, information related to securities has become more readily available to persons interested in buying or selling stocks and other such securities. Moreover, the proliferation of personal computers and the increased use of the Internet have made information regarding securities widely available to the public. Accordingly, many computer programs have been developed to help traders (both professional and laypersons) to select and trade securities. A downside of the increased availability of information is that persons interested in buying or selling securities often become overwhelmed by the volume of information (information overload) and thus find it difficult to focus and discern useful information from the body of available information.
Conventional computer software or systems designed to facilitate the selection of securities have generally focused on the technical analysis of the securities, based on the price of the security. Specifically, conventional software and computer systems commonly utilize a computation based on current and former stock price to guess what future prices of the stock may be. These systems and methods necessarily depend upon the ability to obtain accurate data regarding a particular security's past and current price. In the past several years, the integrity of this type of data has been compromised due to the actions of executives of certain companies trading the securities, the firms providing accounting services for those companies and the brokerages trading in the stocks themselves. However, even if information regarding a security's price is correct, it is questionable whether past and present price are adequate predictors of the future value of a security.
Another drawback of conventional systems and methods for selecting stocks is related to the display of information to a user of the system. In this regard, the abundance of information often makes it difficult for users to view and understand critical information, and to comprehend relationships between the various types of information related to the securities. There is thus a need for a system and method of displaying financial information of publicly traded securities which overcomes drawbacks of the prior art, such as those discussed above.